Page 52 of Seduced in Ink
Lincoln and his family hadn’t been invited. Maybe if he hadn’t already found the loves of his life, her mother would have found a way to get him here so she could use his connections and fame. But now that he was in a triad? There was no way he would be invited to these types of things.
Madison hated thatshewas here.
Well, no more. She was done with this. She didn’t want to help her parents, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted them to love her anymore. They’d never love her the way she wanted anyway. She was done.
“I’m not sure he’d want to be here anyway,” Madison continued. “Not with the type of people that seem to be here.”
“Excuse me,” one of the women said.
Joyce, that was her name. The woman who had raked her gaze all down Aaron’s body when they first walked in.
No, thank you.
“I knowexactlywho’s here. And Lincoln doesn’t need to have any part of this. Hell, I don’t think I need to. And if I hear you talking about him and his family like that again? You’ll have to deal with me.”
“And what exactly can you do, Madison McClard?”
“Maybe not much to a person like you. But that’s the point, isn’t it? I don’t care what you do. But keep my cousin’s family’s names and their business out of your mouth.”
And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away, practically shaking.
She knew her mother would hear about that later but she didn’t care. She shouldn’t be here. She should just go home and write this off as a loss. She didn’t like the person she became when she was near these people. She was nice. She liked making people happy. That’s what her coffee and cupcakes were all about. And yet, here she was, sniping at another woman for daring to say something about Lincoln. Something he would likely just ignore because he wouldn’t deem them worthy of his time.
Her mother gave her a look from across the way, and she hurried off, not wanting to deal with the ramifications. Honestly, if she had to deal with her right now, she might say something she regretted later. Not that it wouldn’t be true, but because she didn’t want to make a scene. She didn’t need to hurt her family to prove who she was. She needed them to figure it out on their own.
She made her way upstairs, sad that Aaron was off with her father, Guy, and the rest of the men. They were drinking scotch and most likely smoking, though she didn’t think Aaron would since he had joked that he coughed like a teenager having his first cigarette when he had a cigar.
But he was still hanging out, pretending to be the perfect fiancé.
And she was using him.
Something she needed to change.
She walked into the suite that took her breath away every time she stepped inside. Everything was elegant and looked as if it had come from the Ritz in Paris rather than a lodge in Boulder, Colorado.
That was her family’s taste—elegant and pretentious.
She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, however. She would enjoy what she had, even if she got yelled at later. And then she’d stand up for herself just like she had been doing all day.
“I’m going to take a bath,” she told herself. She’d take a nice bubble bath, wait for Aaron to be finished, peel away from the others, and maybe watch a movie or have scorching hot, steamy sex.
Okay, maybe that last martini had gone straight to her head.
That was the fun part, though. She felt all warm and confident and like she could take on the world.
Maybe she could tell Aaron how she felt.
No, she couldn’t. Because she didn’t know.
And telling him would ruin everything.
She made her way into the bedroom part of the suite and nearly tripped over her heels. She toed them off and looked at the very large basket sitting in the middle of the bed.
She hadn’t ordered anything and wondered if she’d somehow ended up in the wrong room. She looked around, noticed her suitcase off to the side near Aaron’s and frowned.
“Okay,” she whispered, wondering who had sent the gift. Maybe it was from Aaron.
Giddy and a little too warm at the thought, she went to the bed and looked down at the basket, her whole body freezing.